ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Friday enhanced wheat support price to Rs1,650 per 40kg for the next crop.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, during a special meeting held under the chairmanship of Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, approved the MSP for wheat crop at Rs1,650 per 40kg.
The committee, in its meeting held on October 26, had fixed the support price at Rs1,600.
On Friday, the ECC took key decisions with regard to demand and supply of wheat so as to stabilize the local market and reduce wheat flour prices across the country.
A coordination committee was constituted to deal with import of wheat and its logistics and distribution to the recipient agencies on the direction of the prime minister. The committee would be chaired by Dr Hafeez Shaikh and would include Advisor to PM on Institutional Reforms Dr Ishrat Hussain, Industries & Production Minister Hammad Azhar, Special Assistant to PM on Revenue Dr Waqar Masood, National Food Security & Research Minister Syed Fakhar Imam and State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Reza Baqir.
The ECC maintained wheat release price at Rs1,475 per 40kg while the chair also approved the grinding ratio of wheat at the base level of 70:30. It was further decided that the ratio for the refined varieties of wheat flour would be decided by the coordination committee later.
The forum also approved aggregate release of wheat at 38,000MT per day to the flour mills. This included 25,000MT by Punjab, 8,000MT by Sindh, 4,000MT by KP and 1,000MT by Balochistan.
Meanwhile, the committee okayed Punjab government’s request to provide additional 0.7MMT of wheat, of which 0.4MMT would be imported by Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP).
Lastly, a technical supplementary grant for the settlement of outstanding dues of non-litigant retired employees of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), amounting to Rs11.680 billion, was approved by the committee.
